Old BexarMet contract negotiations extended

Published 10:26 am, Friday, May 4, 2012

Negotiations are continuing on the most contentious and expensive water supply contract the San Antonio Water System inherited when it took over the Bexar Metropolitan Water district.

Negotiations between SAWS and the Water Exploration Co. were to end in April, but have been extended to July, the utility says.

Last summer, the WECo contract forced BexarMet to pay a water rate that was effectively 400 percent higher than the going rate, and those rates would then have increased this summer, according to SAWS.

The nature of the how the contract was signed last spring is under investigation by the Bexar County district attorney's office.

“We have been making meaningful progress with SAWS through very detailed discussions,” Dean Davenport, chief executive officer of WECO, said in a news release. “We believe a mutually agreeable solution that will be beneficial to SAWS, its customers and the city of San Antonio is likely to be announced in the very near future.”